Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.

The purpose of this bill is to authorize public universities and colleges with an accredited education program to operate community schools in cooperation with the local county board of education. The bill establishes a pilot project allowing only West Virginia University and Marshall University to operate community schools in cooperation with the Monongalia and Cabell County Boards of Education for school years beginning prior to 2016. The bill authorizes public colleges or universities to sponsor community schools in cooperation with county boards of education.

Fiscal Note Detail

Over-all effect

Effect of Proposal

Fiscal Year

2014Increase/Decrease(use"-")

2015Increase/Decrease(use"-")

Fiscal Year(Upon FullImplementation)

1. Estmated Total Cost

0

0

0

Personal Services

0

0

0

Current Expenses

0

0

0

Repairs and Alterations

0

0

0

Assets

0

0

0

Other

0

0

0

2. Estimated Total Revenues

0

0

0

3. Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):

There is insufficient data to calculate the estimated cost to the state for the proposed legislation. The proposed legislation requires that the State Board of Education provide temporary financial assistance to a county board of education due to the enrollment of nonpublic students in the community school. There is no way of knowing the number of nonpublic school students who would enroll in any approved community schools; however, the payments are limited to the amounts appropriated by the legislature each year. The proposed legislation also requires that the State Board create a grant program to provide temporary transitional funding to a county board of education due to the budgetary impact relating to any student attending a community school for the first year of operation of the community school. The criteria for the grant program are to be established by the State Board of Education. There is no way of knowing how many applications would be received or the amounts of any grants that would be approved under the criteria. Further, this particular portion of the legislation is not limited to the funds appropriated by the legislature - the legislation indicates that the state board shall use appropriated funds and other available funds.

The proposed legislation indicates that the community school students will be included in the county board of education enrollment used in calculating state aid funding under the Public School Support Program (PSSP). However, the staff of the community school is not included in the county board of education certified list of personnel, so in order to maintain the current level of state aid funding, the county boards of education will have to continue to employ at least the number of professional and service personnel calculated using the limits under PSSP (counties are funded at the lesser of calculated and actually employed). Based on the preliminary state aid calculations for the 2014-15 school year, both Cabell and Monongalia Counties would see no personnel savings for professionals and limited personnel savings for service personnel. The per pupil payment to the community school would be in addition to their current personnel costs and could eventually result in deficit situations depending on the number of students in attendance at the community schools.

There are some other technical issues noted in the legislation that would require correction.